'Best' employer meets nearly every need
By Jane M. Von Bergen
Knight Ridder News Service
PHILADELPHIA — Once a month, when he runs out of underwear, Phu Lieu, 26, takes dirty clothes into work at Analytical Graphics Inc. in Exton, Pa.
Pennsylvania-based Analytical Graphics Inc., named "Best Small Company to Work for in America," offers these worker perks: • Free breakfast, lunch and dinner. Families are invited. • Bring the children anytime. • Flex time. No one watches the clock. • Beer on Friday afternoons. • Free exercise room, personal trainer, Pilates class. • Oil changes, for a competitive fee. • Weekly pickup and delivery from dry cleaner.
There, he can use a washer and dryer for free. But that's not his favorite perk at AGI, a software company recently named the "Best Small Company to Work for in America" by the group that publishes the annual "100 Best Companies to Work for in America" in Fortune magazine.
Job does all but clean windows
"It's the food," he said. Caterer-prepared breakfasts, lunches and dinners are free every day, as are cabinets of candy, cereal, cookies and coffee in kitchens on every floor. A recent Wednesday's dinner menu included turkey and stuffing, fried catfish and braised country-style ribs.
"On weekends I don't eat," said Lieu, a database administrator.
As some companies keep a tight rein on costs, AGI's chief executive officer, Paul L. Graziani, says spending money on employees pays off. Not only are they happier and more productive, he said, but AGI saves big on employee turnover: AGI has 3 percent turnover, compared with the industry average of 20.5 percent per year, according to Culpepper & Associates Inc. of Atlanta, which conducts industry benchmark studies.
The company's 195 headquarters employees enjoy other perks, including a fully equipped exercise room and discount tickets to ball games, while the 15 employees in AGI's branch offices in Washington, D.C., Colorado, California and Madrid, Spain, eat on the company dime.
The perks cost about $5,000 per employee, or about $1 million annually, on top of salaries and the standard array of health benefits, vacations, a 401(k) match and profit-sharing.
At its headquarters in Exton, AGI makes software that analyzes data from military equipment and uses it to help the equipment operate cohesively. Most of its $42 million in annual sales comes from the government, either directly or through contractors.
Companies that win "best" designations usually have a work culture that goes well beyond perks or pay, said Lisa Ratner, project manager for the Great Place to Work Institute of San Francisco, which creates the lists.
"When you walk into a 'Best' company, you can feel the energy," Ratner said. "It's not just something tangible like having pet insurance or food... . It's the whole work culture that's incredible, and you can sense that."
Graziani said that when he and two co-founders started the company in his living room in 1989, they made a commitment to take care of employees.
"You get this snowball effect," he said. "They get more productive, and the company gets more productive, and then you have the resources to do more things for them."
Graziani relates that cynics accused him of feeding his workers to make them stay late. That's not true, he said. "We feed them because they stay late."
